Saturday, April 4, 2015

Catching Up

It has been quiet times here in Mesa as we start preparing for our return home. We are leaving here on the 10th, spending a few days in Las Vegas to see the lights and get the last few days of good weather before heading into cooler climes. We will be staying at Road Runner RV Park where they have their $16 per day / 3 day stay special on again.

Back here in Mesa Village, we went to Brian and Sue's for dinner on Wednesday afternoon. Sue made a delicious pasta dinner and we had some great conversation on their patio until the sun went down and we drove home. I stick to my "less than one drink per hour" rule and never have to worry about this part of going out.

Last night we went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner but I have to report it was not very good. I am sure there there is great Chinese food here and I should have done some research instead of just looking for the closest place. It was cheap enough and we brought half of our $25, three dish dinner home but as I say, it was nothing to write about. I will eat some of it today but I think Norma is done with it.

Our neighbor Shadowmoss flew home to move her mother out to the park here in Mesa. She dropped by yesterday to see if we were interested in going with her, her mom and the neighbor back to Organ Stop Pizza as her mom wanted to try it out. We will be doing that on Tuesday.

I was doing my month end finances the other day and really noticed how much less we have spent this year as compared to last year when we traveled all the way to Florida. The main savings is of course in gas. Dining out is similar to last year. We have gone out fewer times, but to more expensive places. Our RV parking expenses are not that much less because last year we boondocked so much when we were on the road. This year we were in monthly paid parks nearly all the time. I will do a detailed comparison when we get home. The devalued Canadian dollar has accounted for the majority of the difference in daily costs this year. It makes a huge difference as our Canadian dollar is worth only eighty cents this year compared to well over ninety cents last year.

We were talking about how we felt about staying in one place this year as compared to previous years when we moved about much more. There are advantages to both but we both feel we had way more fun moving around. I want to do at least one more winter in Mexico and that is what we will be looking at next year but maybe staying longer in each place. We have explored Mexico and have our favorite places (and people) so our plans will be centered on this. Stay tuned.

I am generally happy with the performance of my mutual funds so far this year. The gold (precious metals) fund is not doing so well and that is the one I cashed a bit out of to pay for my dental work. I will have to dip into it again in September when we fly down to have part two done. The major portion of the fund has been increasing in value by about 1 1/2% per month since January 1 so that is not bad in these days of market unrest. If things continue the way they are going I should be up by 15 - 20% by the end of the year. Not bad. Worse than some years, better than others.

Well, all for now. We will soon be headed home!

14 comments:

  1. From reading your blog, you definitely have way more fun when you're moving around. It seemed like you were a little bored this year, but that's just the perspective I had as a reader.

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  2. "Croft's Mexico" is quite different when in Mexico.

    Can't imagine that dentistry in canada is so expensive you must fly 2000 miles to accomplish what is probably inferior work?

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    1. Yes, dentistry in Canada is so expensive that I can save tons on money by flying 2000 miles for dental work. The work I am having done over 2 or 3 visits for $8K would have been $30K in Canada. This gives me enough for a plane ticket and a rented car.

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    2. A plane ticket, a rented car, and about $20,000 to leave in the bank.

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    3. Rick, the work is anything but inferior. The dentists give you their undivided attention (no jumping patient to patient), have the most modern equipment available and are mostly trained in the USA.

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  3. Like us, sometimes it's nice to take a winter to rest a bit more then to be always on the road. I feel like we did a better job at both this year although 2 1/2 months in one place was still long - I think 3 weeks is about right. Now that we are home bound I look forward to you trip next winter. Hopefully a return trip to Patzcuaro is on your list and perhaps you may try Zihua - I think you two would like it there even for a few weeks. I still looked forward to and enjoyed your posts this year!

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    1. We will have to pick your brain a little about that place you stayed in Zihua. We would also like to continue on to Puerto Escondido.

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  4. Roadrunner was your suggestion to us last year as we went through Las Vegas. It was a nice stay and a good rest. Everyone is heading home now for the summer. Hi Norma!

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  5. We really enjoy moving around, About 1-3 weeks in one place is what we enjoy, any more than that is just now for us.
    The nice thing about this lifestyle is we have choices.

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    1. Yes, we have so many choices. I agree on the one or two weeks. That gives enough time to see everything without it getting boring.

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  6. On that moving about thing: Linda and I bused around on our snowbird sojourn this past winter. We did most of Yucatan and Belize; flying into and out of Cancun. We liked Belize a lot. The inland area is like a tropical Pennsylvania. We did a little of the coast but the inland areas were more interesting. The country is easy to get around in, it is about the size of Lake Erie with only 400,000 people, for the most part it is very rural . The country is pretty safe, the gun laws restrict gun ownership to the rich and security types-predawn jogging is common in the small towns, a sure sign of a low knock one on the head polity. Gas was pricey, food was cheaper than here in Ohio. And English is the language of the land...

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